With only the Chichester event to follow, the lure of a good points score drew in top sailors With a slightly delayed launch due to the missing breeze, the first race got under way with a clean start and very soon the usual suspects where pushing for the lead.

The wind was shifting and falling throughout and with the race time limit looming and |no chance of the Toppers |getting to the finish, the race officer took the option of finishing at a mark.

The afternoon saw three races completed in what remained challenging and shifty conditions. With virtually all of the boats pushing hard at the starts in an effort to gain that tiny advantage and some clean wind, it was amazing that all the starts got away first time.

The event was sponsored by Elite Signs, with Parkstone’s Yacht Club’s Kuzyk taking the Traveller trophy.

William Birch-Tomlinson of HISC was second and Oliver Aldridge, another Parkstone helm, was third.

The first-placed 4.2 went to Christiaan Wakefield, again from Parkstone, with Imogen Kemp the top Poole YC helm.

Bournemouth sailor Nikki Curwen has just been accepted into the Artemis Offshore Academy, the only sailing |academy in the UK to offer training in short-handed offshore racing.

Of 16 successful applicants to the 2012 selection trials, 23-year-old Curwen is one of six to have been carefully selected to join the ranks of the academy.

She will take on the Artemis Mini 6.50 campaign, a small 6.5 metre short-handed keelboat, following in the footsteps of her father Simon, who currently holds the title as the highest-placing British sailor in the French-dominated Mini Transat 6.50.

Over the coming weeks, Nikki will begin her training programme with the academy, hoping to accumulate enough miles for her to qualify for the 2013 Mini Transat 6.50.